Gaurav Keerthi

Hello! I'm a helicopter pilot. Outside work, I volunteer actively in the debate community, where I was was the President of the Debate Association (Singapore). I did my undergraduate studies at Stanford University on the SAF Overseas Scholarship, and was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew scholarship to pursue my masters at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where I graduated as a distinguished Littauer Fellow. I feel very blessed in life, and thus believe it is important to try and pay it forward to society by helping others. All of my pursuits are non-profit, and I've been featured in The Straits Times, Channel NewsAsia, Prestige, and other magazines for my volunteer work. I also sing badly, play guitar terribly, and enjoy jogging with my wife.

I am increasingly worried about the disrespectful, divisive, and unproductive online comments that are ruining our ability to discuss issues collectively. I designed and built a completely new conceptual framework for commenting to help solve that, which has been featured in Straits Times and Channel NewsAsia. The dialectic.sg aims to have more productive conversations to build a better Singapore.

Think Speak Win is an introductory debate book that teaches readers how to think fast and speak persuasively. It is used at Raffles Institution and was a Kinokuniya bestseller. Available online at Amazon and at your library.
I have also written feature articles: "The Future of Dialogue" for IPS Commons in Jan 2016, and "Better Debates for a Better Singapore" for SMU's Catalyst Asia in Oct 2015.

Debating is not about winning arguments; it's about learning to disagree respectfully. I wanted to share that life lesson with a wider audience, so I made that the subject of my TEDx speech at Harvard [May 2014].

Everybody should be able to have access to robust debates about policy issues, so they understand both sides. We co-created a student reality TV debate show in 2007 The Arena, which became the first local show to be nominated for an International Emmy Award. I have also hosted live and recorded debates with adult panelists for Channel NewsAsia, in 2012 (Bridging Asia: The Singapore Debates), 2014 (The Year Ahead), and 2015 (World and Singapore Review).